While going down the rabbit hole of Peter O’Brian Indonesian flicks we stumbled into a bit of anomaly. In the Jungle HeatO’Brian isn’t an invincible agent, super- cop or even a deranged Villain- here he is a bit of an grizzled and disillusioned adventurer. So, we get a bit of Rambo and a bit of Indiana Jones for the same price- I can’t complain!

Welcome to the jungle Mr. O’Brian!

The movie starts with a pair of explorers (one extremely resembling Radovan the Third) extremely concerned. Their colleague Steve stole some diamonds from the tribe and that incites a horrible conflict. Explorers end up pretty much wiping out the fair share of the tribe with firearms but the numbers were just too much and they fell too.

Now, Radovan‘s wife dies but his child survived the whole ordeal. I guess initially the plan was to sacrifice the kid to appease the gods but the divine intervention happens (old school hand drawn lighting– I miss stuff like this today) and they end up declaring a blond child their new goddess. Didn’t expect that did you?

We cut to a girl celebrating her birthday in a rough biker joint, and as someone who’s living next to such establishment I don’t recommend celebrating your birthday in a place like that. Girl called Lola is planing an expedition to get the treasure from the Tribe, it seems she’s the only one with the diary/ partial map of the place. Of course as those things happen some biker tries to cop a feel and everything evolves into a completely insane brawl. As always Peter O’Brian does some of the best brawling too!

While they sort things out- O’ Brien asks for a 60% cut– we see, now grown up blonde “goddess” running around half- naked without a care in the world. It seems her godess status means she never actually has to do doesn’t do anything, she just spends her days happily strolling around and playing with animals (like she’s in some kind of Disney movie).

Peter changed his mind and came no negotiate.So, he is going to the Jungle after all! Unfortunately finally when it seems they reached the agreement the bad guys decide to kidnap Lola and get the treasure for themselves! O’Brien and John go after them, and in the car chase that ensues we see just how manic can O’Brian get (hint- really, really manic).

Peter finally caught up to them in the train station but then they bad guys start shooting up civilians and force him to finally give up. Too bad.

Criminals lead by a Frenchman turn out to be extremely cruel to Lola by forcing her to swim behind the boat while alligators are gathering around her. Man, I don’t remember seeing such cruelty towards women on film in a long, long time. Unfortunately it turns out that they are not really lucky with the whole Jungle thing, Cannibalistic tribe attack them and after a brief exchange they all end up captured (well, those who didn’t die). Thankfully Peter shows up to finally save Lola (she doesn’t seem to be all that grateful by the way).

Yes, this cute baby leopard wouldn’t really hurt anyone, but hell – it beats some CGI animals we see in the modern films!

Chief discovers the appeal of firearm, killing one of his tribesman in the process. Now, Frenchman sees the opportunity and teaches the Cheif how to shoot, even demonstrating it on his partner( he never liked him anyway). So, guns prove to be a great way of bonding for people of such different cultures (it turns no mater how different we all are on the outside, we all really love killing).

After crazy stunt that ended with them falling down the waterfall the three of them end up captured by the Mazizi’s tribe and their whole fate is now clings on their ability to magicaly heal the boy with a deadly fever. When all seemed lost O’Brian pulled out his flask and washed the kid’s forehead with alcohol. Ah, the alcohol beverage- the great equalizer!

Everything ends in nice celebration and sparks start flying between O’Brien and Mazizi, even thou we still don’t know where her loyalty stands. wanting Mazizi for himself he does the only logical thing, challenges O’Brian to a fight, with everything including fake slow mo!

So, now all that is left is the wedding ritual, that takes place in you guessed in- secret cave with a giant red diamond! So the treasure is real! But their happiness doesn’t last long because the evil Francman attacks with the other, cannibalistic tribe! Also, why is the evil tribe the one with much darker complexion? Is this on purpose? Also, Indonesian cinematography never shied away from killing kids and it this movie they reaffirm that- by killing practically all the kids in the village. No mater how ridiculous the scenes are they are still shocking for someone who mostly watches American and European films.

It turns out the evil man who brought the Canibals is none other than the warrior O’Brian defeated. While man are fighting it out in the cave the Frenchman decides to go directly after the diamond but activates secret magic alarm and the whole things explodes. Our heroes on the other hand menage to escape, if only barely.

Verdict: Jungle Heat doesn’t quite have the crazy, over the top level of action of Rambu or The Stabilizer and parts of it are a bit draggin’ (the two consecutive love scenes toward the end) but there is some unexpected funny stuff with animals and the tribal duel over Mazizi is almost worth the price of admission alone!

Though Cinthia Rothrock is most recognizable because of her classic Hong Kong movies (often with Richard Norton) and later a solid string of American Martial Arts B- movies (lots of those in the 90’s) she actually had roles in more than a couple of Indonesian flicks in the beginning of her storied career and as we all know- there’s not quite like an Indonesian action movie!

Now, one of the main selling pointsof this movie (for us) is without a doubt Peter O’Brian (The Intruder/ Rambu, The Stabilizer). To the best of my knowledge this is a man who who was offered a part in an Indonesian action movie (before that was hip) due to his uncanny resemblance to one Sylvester Stallone (the fact that one of his movies is called Rambu is a dead giveaway) and he said “Hell yeah!” and never looked back .To top it off in this movie he plays a deranged villain Bolt and his foil is non other than “Lady Dragon” herself Cintia Rotrock and with that combo like that- you can do no wrong.

Bolt (O’Brian) is brutally torturing a man (at one point his goon, an Asian Mr. T taking off some of his fingers with a meat chopper) and at the same time showing off his impressive physique. The poor man holds on before they threaten his young daughter and then he finally breaks down and gives Bolt the information. Information about what you ask? You’ll find out in a just a second.

Nancy Bolan (Cyntia Rothrock) is a head of security at HTI and she’s arriving to Indonesia as a courier carrying a mysterious silver briefcase. Not even ten seconds after she arrives at the station in a typical Asian fashion she and her colleague get attacked by a bunch of goons and after a hell of a fight they manage to take off in a speed boat. It seemed that they are finally safe but situation evolves into a gunfight at see and after defeating the goons and things finally look safe Rothrock gets drugged and passes out.

Now, the men holding her turn out to be working for her- ex- boyfriend! It turns out the said boyfriend faked his own death and waited three years all in effort to finally catch the Bolt– man he has a bone to pick with this dude! Rothrock on the other hand doesn’t seem to mind and the two of them continue where the left off with their romance.

The day after on the company meeting we finally learn the whole story. Rothrock is using three couriers (including herself) to carry a super- computer to the state, two being distraction and one being the actual real deal .Ironically no one knows where the real one is (at least as far as I can see). We also learn why is the criminal targeting them called Bolt, it’s because he is “The Terrorist Who Strikes Like Lightning“ (I just love that).

And then we have the fantastically ridiculous “Mission Impossible” scene where the black dude from the meeting takes off the mask- and it was Bolt all along! Considering they didn’t really have a budget for anything resembling a mask you see the scene from the back of the car.

Slika?

So, here we go again, everyone is waiting for the briefcase to come via boat but Nancy secretly changed the plan and the real briefcase is actually coming to the airport via helicopter. Actually some blond Brad Pitt looking dude is carrying it. Unfortunately, Bolt is already onto them. He intercepts the car of her boss and goes straight to the airport where shootout ensues and the blond boy gets it.The shootout is one of my favorite things in this movie because it literally makes no sense, most of the actors seem like they never seen firearm before and everything ends up exploding for one reason or another.

Now, in the middle of all the craziness she’s going out shopping with her friend and her daughter. Unfortunately ‘s man tried to kidnap her and end up taking a little girl (her friend’s daughter). She viciously goes after them (on a motorbike) and after some nearly impossible stunts she stops them end… they freakin’ kill the child- in slow motion! Man, nothing is sacred for the Indonesian filmmakers!

Confusingly after the traumatic death of a child Nancy goes on a romantic evening with her boyfriend and they have a strange sex scene with spliced footage of them kissing on the docks (these people are not sure how love scenes are supposed to work). After she wakes up tomorrow morning she immediately gets kidnapped and ends up being tortured by Bolt and his Asian Mr. T henchmen.

HTI arranges a trade, briefcase (the final one) for Nancy but of course her boyfriend crashes a meeting (literally- via jeep trough the wall) and a complete Martial Art/ Gun- Fu madness ensues with briefcase changing hands like a hot potato.

Bolt gets completely unhinged and starts destroying everything on his way and his showdown with Rothrock is truly of EPIC proportions. Unfortunately, it gets interrupted by her boyfriend (who seems to have made a habit of that) but then- he wants briefcase all for himself! She goes after him and the fight ends up in the helicopter- she conveniently strangles him with his own tie (you should take a lesson and never get in a fight in a business suit).

Verdict: Now, this movie has completely impossible fight scenes, bizarre editing choices and people who for the life of them can’t hold a gun properly. Production values are severely lacking (you’re sure to start laughing at some of the chases, explosions and gun battles) and that lack especially shows in the sound department (to the best of my knowledge Rothrock is the only actor that isn’t dubbed in the whole movie) but I challenge you to watch Angel of Fury and not have fun.

Complete Killcount by Cinthia, number 11 is especially impressive!

Trivia:We also have a bit of news to cap things off. Fantastic Mr. O’Brian is supposedly eying his comeback to the film industry after lengthy time away he spent teaching English and being a life coach. He’s been offered a role ofa British General Cameron, commander at the Battle of Gate Pa– whenever this comes true or not one thing is for sure- everything this man does will be on out “must see” list!